Judy Collins describes 'amazing' life

Reporter: Mark Bannerman

KERRY O'BRIEN: When the youthful tribes gathered in Woodstock in '69, one of their anthems was a song called 'Suite Judy Blue Eyes'. It was written about and for a young singer named Judy Collins. Already a star with songs like 'Chelsea Morning' and 'Both Sides Now', she would go on to sell millions more records including 'Send in the Clowns'. Since then she's battled alcoholism and had to come to terms with the suicide of her only child. Some would have wilted under that kind of pressure. Judy Collins has not. She's confronted her demons through a book that became a best seller. She's currently touring Australia, and in this report, Mark Bannerman explores both sides of her story.

MARK BANNERMAN: She was and she remains a queen of American music, blessed with a voice one critic likened to liquid silver. Schooled in classical piano Judy Collins could have made a life in any area of music she chose, but in the turbulent 1960s it seems that folk music chose her.

JUDY COLLINS: I got involved with the Denver Folklore Society. I started learning songs and before you know it I didn't want to practise Beethoven or Rachmananov anymore.

MARK BANNERMAN: But what was it, what grabbed you?

JUDY COLLINS: It was the the words, the stories. I found the stories about love and war and requited and unrequited love and oh, my. It's just a wealth, a treasure-trove.

MARK BANNERMAN: But times were different then. Musicians weren't so much artists as activists. Playing political rallies and signing up voters in southern America.

JUDY COLLINS: When they said they were going to Mississippi to vote - to fight for the voters' rights for African-Americans, I said, "I'm going." That's the way I was brought up anyway. I was raised in one of these wonderful Americano families where the major focus was the work ethic, doing your best, behaving like a citizen, taking action where you saw, trying to make the world better, one person can make a difference. That's how I was raised.

MARK BANNERMAN: You at first were not a songwriter, but you were able to cherry pick and be with just a fantastic sort of coterie of songwriters and you were very clever about that. If I say some names can you give me a couple of words to describe them? Bob Dylan?

JUDY COLLINS: Consciousness changing, I think.

MARK BANNERMAN: Leonard Cohen?

JUDY COLLINS: Wooh. Consciousness itself.

MARK BANNERMAN: Joni Mitchell?

JUDY COLLINS: Unconsciousness itself.

MARK BANNERMAN: So what was it about them that was common?

JUDY COLLINS: Well, Joni and Leonard I found both of their songs through total accidents. In the case of Joni somebody called me, Al Cooper called me in the middle of the night and said "I want to put this singer on." I vaguely knew who she was. She wasn't recording, but singing in the village. She put her on the phone at 3:00 in the morning and sang 'Both Sides Now' to me and I said, "I'll be right over."

MARK BANNERMAN: Simple as that.

JUDY COLLINS: Simple as that.

MARK BANNERMAN: The 1960s were kind to Judy Collins, the next two decades would show her that other side of life. First there was the battle with alcoholism. What drew you into that?

JUDY COLLINS: What drew me into...

MARK BANNERMAN: Drinking.

JUDY COLLINS: I was born with the Irish virus. That's easy. I came by it honestly through centuries and centuries of ancestors, I am sure. I even know some of them - who some of them were.

MARK BANNERMAN: Was it tough to give it up?

JUDY COLLINS: I had a very dark about four years where I was drinking around the clock. I thought, well, it is all over. What will I do if I can't sing. So I started to think about what will I do if I can't sing? Then I thought I don't have a choice. I think I 'm going to have to give it up and I went into treatment.

MARK BANNERMAN: Alcoholism may have been hard to deal with, but the death of her son by suicide was much tougher again. You said something that in a sense is very brave, that you said "That decision ultimately to commit suicide must be respected".

JUDY COLLINS: Oh, absolutely. If you don't have that right, then you don't have any rights. A human being.

MARK BANNERMAN: You really feel that?

JUDY COLLINS: Oh, absolutely.

MARK BANNERMAN: Despite the pain it's brought you?

JUDY COLLINS: Well, if you've had a suicide in your life, then you have no right to take your life because you know too much.

MARK BANNERMAN: A decade on, though, Judy Collins, it seems, is back, aligned with old friends she's found a new lease of life. And all of it because of live music.

JUDY COLLINS: It's a shared understanding of the meaning of art and the meaning of music in people's lives and live music in people's lives is deeply important. It's deeply healing and it's deeply spiritual.

MARK BANNERMAN: She still has the magic and Judy Collins will perform in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney over the next few nights.